Chicken Run

This week my kids are taking care of the neighbors’ pets. By pets I mean a dog, a goose and some chickens. Lots of chickens. And baby chicks. They have to be fed and watered twice a day, and they have to collect the eggs. This family also runs a little egg business, and have egg deliveries scheduled for about every other day, so we’ve also been taking care of that, too. But, as usual, this animal caretaking has not been without incident. Two of the girls went on Thursday to do the first run through, and after about an hour, I began to wonder where in the world they were. ‘Did they take a phone with them?’ I’m asking myself. No, they did not. I was about ready to go over there and check on them, when my daughter showed up at the door.
“Mom!” She called, “the chickens got out and we can’t get them back into their coop!” Her shoes were covered with mud, and so were her pants. Her new shoes, I might add. Ugh.
“We’re using Natalie’s jacket to throw it over the chickens and catch them!” she said breathlessly. Joy. Double joy.
Being in the middle of making bread, and not particularly enthused about going to chase down chickens in the snow (yes, we still had snow last week), I sent her brother to go and help her. “And take another coat for Natalie, and TAKE the phone!” I hoped the addition of one more person would help them, and they wouldn’t be outside in the cold for too much longer.
I waited 45 minutes before I called my son on the phone. “Are you guys done with those chickens, yet?” I asked. “Only one more!” he said. I could hear lots of noises in the background. It could have been the girls laughing/screaming, or it could have been angry chickens, I wasn’t sure. “If you are not done by 5:30, just leave the chickens and COME HOME anyway!” I said. Chickens or no chickens, I don’t need my children getting sick because they were outside for more than two hours.
Then I called a friend of mine. A friend who also has chickens. “Friend,” I said (only I used her real name, of course), “I have a weird question for you. My kids are trying to wrangle the neighbors’ chickens, and they can’t get them back in their coop. Do you have any tricks?” She told me that usually the chickens would go back inside for food, but if they had already fed them, then she didn’t know what to tell me. But she offered to send her five year old son over. He apparently has a talent for catching chickens.
It took about 15 more minutes for the kids to show up, but I guess the little guy really does have the chicken talent. He came, scooped up the chicken and got him in the cage. Immediately. I should have called for him sooner!

The good thing is, my kids got lots of exercise and fresh air that day. The bad thing is, I had three kids covered with mud. The pants, the shoes, the jackets, the shirts–all muddy. And they were freezing! I had them leave their shoes outside and took ALL their clothes to the laundry room for immediate washage. Then they took showers, changed clothes and got cozy under some blankets to warm them up.

The next two days passed without any such incidences. They would stay to play with the dog, collect the eggs and feed the chickens and were done in about half an hour. Today they had to catch some chickens again, but it wasn’t nearly as hard. Or as muddy.

And I’m enjoying having fresh eggs. Is it worth all that hassle? I don’t think so.